£1200 - Dell Studio XPS 16 - with ssd?

[TheRoadWarrior]

Turned up today Slightly miffed as theres a small problem with it. The plastic cover just above the power button, next to the battery doesnt fit too well- theres a small but noticable gap, probably ~1mm at the outside and ~0.5mm over where it says "Studio XPS".
Other than that its perfect, will probably phone them and see if they can come out and sort it.

Just going to do a fresh install of windows7, i'm going to nuke the 14gb recovery partition, but i'm wondering what the "OEM Partition" might be?? Its only 39mb, is it the boot sector? I didnt think that usually shows in disc management??

Will post some pictures later

 

[dfl]

Where do you people see the xps 16 with an i7 processor? I'm looking at both the US and the UK shops and the only CPU options I see there are Ps and Ts.

Also - is the idea of replacing the optical drive with a HDD just a speculation, or is it a tested procedure (on the XPS16 or similar Dells, if any) ?

 

[malcolm]

Where do you people see the xps 16 with an i7 processor? I'm looking at both the US and the UK shops and the only CPU options I see there are Ps and Ts.

On the UK site the i7 processor is an upgrade, you have to 'customise' one of the offered systems, take a deep breath before you start!

Earlier in this thread there is a site listed that offers shortcuts to the current offers via the value codes, there are two i7 720's offered there.

 

[iaind]

Just going to do a fresh install of windows7, i'm going to nuke the 14gb recovery partition, but i'm wondering what the "OEM Partition" might be?? Its only 39mb, is it the boot sector? I didnt think that usually shows in disc management??

Will post some pictures later

That will be the diagnostic tools and things - don't delete it

Mine departed China on Friday - here's hoping it gets here soon!

 

[TheRoadWarrior]

That will be the diagnostic tools and things - don't delete it

Mine departed China on Friday - here's hoping it gets here soon!

Good news! From leaving china to being at my door mine took 6working days + a weekend. From what i've read most people seem to get theirs sooner than that.

I kept the diagnostics partition but nuked the backup. Got an extra 14gb for my trouble.

If anyone else does this on the XPS Studio 16 with the in built TV tuner (WINTV-NOVA) the dell support page doesnt show Win7 drivers, I just used the Vista64 drivers and the TV tuner now works fine under media centre.

I did loose PowerDVD DX in the process, anyone know how/where to get this?

 

[iaind]

Mine now says:

03/11/09 12:50 PLAN COMMITTED NOTE.

And I got an email saying it'll be here tomorrow....woo!

Wondering whether to do a clean install myself - is PowerDVD the only worthwhile app that came preinstalled other than drivers etc?

 

[ninja2000]

I got rid of all the software, I have better alternatives to everything Dell put on there.

How are you finding the heat RoadWarrior? have you tried any gaming yet?

 

[iaind]

Taking the thread off topic a bit - were any of you not able to be at home for the delivery?

The mouse I ordered was put through on a separate order and I got an automated phone call to schedule an am/pm slot - the courier (TNT) missed the slot so I got a card and can collect from the depot.

However, with the laptop itself I didn't get a call to schedule but recieved an email saying it will be tomorrow. I wont be able to be at home, so what happens? It seems to be a different process, so would that indicate it's a courier other than TNT?

 

[malcolm]

The computers seem to be delivered by Walsh and Western, their service seems to be either painless or downright awfull, lots of stuff on the web about nightmare experiences. I bought my current Inspiron nearly 4 years ago and the delivery was painless. Bought a printer 18 months ago and that too was fine. Seems to be the luck of the drawer.

 

[TheRoadWarrior]

W&W dont deliver the actual packages, they'll use someone like TNT/UPS etc. You should get a card if you're out i would think. No dramas.

Another fresh install note- the bluetooth drivers are also not listed under windows 7, im just trying the vista64 ones now.. i only just realised that it wasnt installed as there are no devices in device manager that are unrecognised.. but i couldnt get my headphones to connect and i realised there was no BT tray icon.

Heat wise; yeah it does get pretty hot.. as said at the front around the touchpad area is pretty bad... you could probably cook an egg on my AC adapter too! Played a little Crysis yesterday, but im pretty busy at the moment so i've not had much time to play.

Keyboard is great too, this message is probably the most i've actually typed since i got it yesterday but the keys feel great and touch typing is pretty easy..

The backlit keys are ace as well!

 

[iaind]

It was just because the mouse was TNT but I had a phone call, this time I've got an email - which has made me think its a different courier. We have depots for most of them here anyway so should be ok

I think I'll wait till you've reinstalled yours before I give mine a go, will probably spend this evening uninstalling crapware (if it arrives!)

Edit: Hmm, its showing as "BPO - Exeter" this morning - does anyone know who "BPO" might be?

 

[TheRoadWarrior]

Think that means its at the Depot? Heres the full transcript of mine:

02/11/09 12:15 SHERIFF DELIVERED
02/11/09 07:48 BPO - BIRMINGHAM ORDER ON DELIVERY.
31/10/09 05:17 BPO - BIRMINGHAM FIRST BOX SCANNED INTO HUB.
31/10/09 05:17 BPO - BIRMINGHAM ORDER COMPLETE IN DEPOT.
30/10/09 19:02 BPO - BIRMINGHAM ORDER COMPLETE IN DEPOT.
30/10/09 19:02 BPO - BIRMINGHAM FIRST BOX SCANNED INTO HUB.
30/10/09 14:09 WWI - HINCKLEY ORDER DISPATCHED FROM HUB.
30/10/09 14:09 WWI - HINCKLEY FIRST BOX SCANNED OUT OF HUB.
30/10/09 14:09 WWI - HINCKLEY ORDER COMPLETE IN HUB.
30/10/09 14:09 WWI - HINCKLEY FIRST BOX SCANNED INTO HUB.
30/10/09 11:22 PLAN COMMITTED NOTE.
29/10/09 16:24 IVR-OUTBOUND 02/11/09 AM DEL. SCHEDULED DELIVERY DATE.
29/10/09 16:24 IVR-OUTBOUND AM DELIVERY.
29/10/09 16:09 CALL LOCK OUT.
26/10/09 18:30 CHINA DEPARTED MANU.FACILITY



In other news the vista bluetooth drivers install and work fine on Windows7.

 

[djp01]

A few pictures wouldn't go a miss if you get a chance RoadWarrior

 

[iaind]

Turns out BPO means Business Post

So I have it now and I'm blown away. First impressions were brilliant, the red looks awesome, pictures dont do it justice.

The screen, even the non RGBLED (I got the 1080p 15.6" WLED) is absolutely outstanding, so bright and crisp compared to my old Inspiron 1520. The keyboard is superb too....very, very pleased

 

[TheRoadWarrior]

Turns out BPO means Business Post

So I have it now and I'm blown away. First impressions were brilliant, the red looks awesome, pictures dont do it justice.

The screen, even the non RGBLED (I got the 1080p 15.6" WLED) is absolutely outstanding, so bright and crisp compared to my old Inspiron 1520. The keyboard is superb too....very, very pleased

Glad to hear it, tis a lovely machine. Really starting to appreciate mine now.. glad i went for it.

Blu Rays looks amazing on the screen, its so detailed. I've got The Dark Knight on BD and i'm just gawping at the picture!
For someone not used to HD its kinda like looking at a really nice hi-res digital photo, but a movie not still- i know that sounds really obvious-durrr! but until I'd seen it i just wasnt sure how much of an improvement the extra resolution of BD over DVD would actually make to most films... suffice to say its a significant difference!

 

[leoncc]

Pictures please!

 

[leoncc]

Seems the prices on the XPS 16 with the RGBLED have gone up by £100 since last week now

This is the exact same spec and discount I used before! Hmmph!

 

[ninja2000]

Yeah I noticed that today too. Dells prices have been sneaking up slowly over the last few months. also they seem to be getting really tight with the discounts. I remember getting 10% discount codes, seems like only 5% now!

 

[jamief]

5% discount code and 5% quidco goes some way towards lowering the price, but bit disappointed the price has gone up over the past couple of weeks

 

[iaind]

I need a better camera, but here you go:

Co-ordinated!